Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book IV/Hymn 5

5. An incantation to put to sleep.

[Brahman.—svāpanam, vārṣabham. ānuṣṭubham: 2. bhurij; 7. purastājjyotis triṣṭubh.]

Found in Pāipp. iv., next after our hymn 4. Part of the verses are RV. vii. 55. 5-8. Used by Kāuç. among the women's rites, in a rite (36. 1 ff.) for putting to sleep a woman and her attendants, in order to approach her safely.

Translated: Aufrecht, Ind. Stud. iv. 340; Grill, 51, 119; Griffith, i. 135; Bloomfield, 105, 371; Weber, xviii. 20.—Discussed by Pischel, Ved. Stud. ii. 55 f.; see also Lanman, Reader, p. 370, and references; further, the RV. translators; and Zimmer, p. 308.

1. The thousand-horned bull that came up from the ocean—with him, the powerful one, do we put the people to sleep.

The verse is RV. vii. 55. 7, without variant. Ppp. reads at the beginning hiraṇyaçṛn̄gas. The comm. takes the "bull" to be the sun with his thousand rays—but that is nothing to make people sleep; the moon is more likely, but even that only as typifying the night.

2. The wind bloweth not over the earth; no one soever seeth over [it]; both all the women and the dogs do thou make to sleep, going with Indra as companion.

Ppp. has in b the preferable reading sūryas for káç caná. Part of our mss. (P.M.W.E.I.H.K.), with apparently all of SPP's, read svāpáyas* at end of c, but both editions accept svāpáya, which the comm. also has. The comm. understands the wind to be meant as Indra's companion in d. The verse is not bhurij, if we read vā́tó ’ti in a. *⌊And so Op.⌋

3. The women that are lying on a bench, lying on a couch, lying in a litter; the women that are of pure odor—all of them we make to sleep.

For talpeçayā́s in a, Ppp. has puṣṭiç-, and RV. (vii. 55.8) vahyeç-; both give talpaçī́varīs (Ppp. -rī) at end of b. RV. further mars the meter of c by giving -gandhās.

4. Whatever stirs have I seized; eye, breath have I seized; all the limbs have I seized, in the depth (atiçarvará) of the nights.

Ppp. reads in d uta çarvare; the comm. explains atiç- by tamobhūyiṣṭhe madhyarātrakāle.

5. Whoso sits, whoso goes about, and whoso standing looks out—of them we put together the eyes, just like this habitation (harmyá).

RV. (vii. 55. 6) rectifies the meter of a by adding ca before cárati (the Anukr. takes no notice of the deficiency of a syllable in our version); its b is yáç ca páçyati no jánaḥ; and in c it has hanmas for dadhmas, and (as also Ppp.) akṣā́ṇi. The comm. gives no explanation of the obscure comparison in d, nor of the word harmyá, but simply says "as this harmya that we see is deprived of the faculty of sight." ⌊Is not the tertium comparationis simply the closing? We close their eyes as we close this house. The comm. renders sáṁ dadhmas by nimīlitāni kurmas.—For the loss of ca before cárati, cf. iv. 18. 6 a = v. 31. 11 a (sá before çaçā́ka?), and vi. 91. 2 a (’va before vāti?). Other cases (vii. 81. 1 c, etc.) cited by Bloomfield, AJP. xvii. 418.⌋

6. Let the mother sleep, the father sleep, the dog sleep, the housemaster (viçpáti) sleep; let the relatives (jñātí) of her sleep; let this folk round about sleep.

For sváptu (5 times) and svápantu, RV. (vii. 55. 5) gives sástu and sasántu; also, in c, sárve 'all' for asyāi 'of her'—which latter is to us a welcome indication of the reason for all this putting to sleep, and marks the Atharvan application of the hymn, whether that were or were not its original intent. In b, all the mss. have svā́ instead of çvā́; both editions emend to the latter, which is read also by the comm. ⌊For asyāi, cf. iii. 25. 6.⌋

7. O sleep, with the imposition (abhikaraṇa) of sleep do thou put to. sleep all the folk; till sun-up make the others sleep, till dawning let me be awake, like Indra, uninjured, unexhausted.

Several of SPP's mss. have at the beginning svápnas. Ppp. reads svapnādhik-, and so does the comm. (explaining adhik- as adhiṣṭkānaṁ çayyādi); the latter has in d āvyūṣam; and Ppp. gives caratāt for jāgṛtāt. A khila to RV. vii. 55 has a corresponding verse, reading for a svapnáḥ svapnā́dhikáraṇe (thus rectifying the meter), in c ā́ sūryám, and for d dvyùṣáṁ jāgriyād ahám. The Anukr. uses the name jyotis so loosely that it is difficult to say precisely how it would have the verse scanned; it is really a bhurij pan̄kti.

The 5 hymns of the first anuvāka contain 37 verses; and the old Anukr., taking 30 as norm, says simply sapta.